The Centennial Coyotes's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Thursday after their fourth straight loss. They suffered a tough 47-23 loss at the hands of Sunrise Mountain. While losing is never fun, Centennial can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Arizona basketball rankings (they are ranked 182nd, while Sunrise Mountain is ranked 30th).
Despite the loss, Centennial still got an impressive performance from Akasha Prpich, who scored 15 points along with six rebounds and two steals. That was a full 65.2% of Centennial's points, marking the seventh time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Kaleia Young, who scored four points along with six rebounds and five blocks.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Centennial struggled to get the ball back on offense and finished the game with only four offensive rebounds. They were crushed by their opponents in that department as Sunrise Mountain pulled down 24 offensive rebounds.
Savanna Dotray was her usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 19 points and 14 rebounds for Sunrise Mountain. Dotray hasn't dropped below two steals for three straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Jaden Maza, who scored 12 points along with eight rebounds and five steals.
Centennial's loss was their eighth straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 5-10. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 28.6 points per game. As for Sunrise Mountain, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 14-3 record this season.
Centennial will be playing in front of their home fans against Apollo at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Sunrise Mountain won't have much time to rest: their next matchup is against Kellis at 7:00 p.m. on January 12th. Kellis is also coming in off of a big victory, so somebody is in for a big reversal of fortune.
